The monopolizing of the music industry has led to the demise of some of its most prevalent artists. When my face was exploding into my teen years like a pus-filled scab of adolescent angst, there were a myriad of musical avenues to explore. Every person I knew was older and much cooler than myself. They had the opportunity to personalise their identity by choosing what early 2000s trash they listened to. My older brother was an angsty teen with bleach blonde hair and chunky metal jewelry and blasted bands like Blink-182, Green Day or Linkin Park. My sister however replayed Avril Lavigne and Garbage so much that I still hear them echo in my mind.

Lead vocalist of New Jersey pop-punk band The Front Bottoms, Brian Sella, recently sat down and had a chat with Kurt-Lee David. The Front Bottoms toured Australia earlier this year. This interview was conducted just beforehand. We discussed the tour and also a bit about Brian’s personal life.

I grew up in a tiny town in Australia. On your upcoming tour I’ve noticed you’re playing at some smaller cities such as Hobart, Canberra and even Newcastle. Most international acts only hit up Sydney and Melbourne. What made you decide to tour Australia so extensively?

We’re a band that has toured from the very beginning of our careers and we now know that the best shows of the tour will definitely be the smaller towns and the smaller venues. The kids there are more excited about it because [no other bands] really ever show up. I guess we try to make a point to go to the smaller towns, just to make sure everybody gets a little of the love.

This week I am incredibly grumpy about ‘Trumpcare’. On Friday morning (May 5th) Australian listeners awoke to hear about the news of President Trump gloating about the US House of Representatives passing a bill that sets out to repeal many aspects of the current “Affordable Health Care Act” popularly referred to as Obama Care. Other laws passed were ones that allows Churches to make more political comment without the fear of losing their generous tax exemptions.

The recent news about the Australian Citizenship Test has been creating quite a stir. Native Aussies are questioning its validity, even stating that THEY couldn’t answer the questions, so what hope would a foreigner have?

In this week’s new video, we put the rumours to rest as host Kurt-Lee David completes the test LIVE on camera.

We have a new contributor to Affected Empire, oil tycoon Daniel Plainview.

We all at some point in our lives have been forced to produce a product with inept people all in the name of ‘teamwork’.

Mr. Plainview is fresh off being let down yet again by his group on his most recent school assignment. They were not happy with his APA referencing, they edited out his introduction and they demanded he put more snazzy custom animations in his PowerPoint.

But he is not having it! You lose, I am so sorry… View the video below!